<title>Analysis of manufacturing-scale MEMS reliability testing</title>

Abstract

Long-term reliability of MEMS devices is increasingly important for large scale manufactured products. Traditional reliability testing used for microelectronic devices has been applied to integrated MEMS devices with the expectation that acceleration of MEMS-specific failure mechanisms would not be substantial. Rather, traditional package and circuit related failures would be accelerated. In addition, reliability tests that impart mechanical stresses on parts were expected to accelerate failures more so than traditional tests. It was found that while mechanical stresses were more effective in inducing MEMS related failures some traditional reliability tests did accelerate MEMS-related failures.